adminGrace Chirumanzu – Sports Correspondent
The Zimbabwe rowing team’s technical director Rachel Davies is predicting a bright future for the sport after four local schools scooped six medals at the South Africa Schools Rowing Championships a fortnight ago.
A team made up of athletes from Chisipite, St Georges, Arundel and Peterhouse Boys and Girls brought home a gold, three silver and two bronze medals from a variety of events and boat classes.
The championships, which are among the top junior rowing events in the world, this year attracted 40 clubs, 1 325 rowers in 1 057 boats and maiden entries from Zambia and Namibia.
“Winning at such a stage is impressive,” said Davies, adding that the performance in South Africa is “undoubtedly the best set of results that the Zimbabwean juniors have achieved.”
She added that they are looking at ways of making sure that the promising rowers make the leap into the big time.
“A large percentage of our junior rowers choose to leave the country to continue with tertiary education at a crucial time for senior development. Having said that, if an athlete does opt to stay in Zimbabwe we have a great team of physiotherapists in Margie Gibson and Ryan Bathurst and a fantastic facility at Innovate Gym run by Grant Mitchell, to round out the training. There is a support system in place should an athlete choose to stay here and train,” said Davies.
The highlight of Zimbabwe’s outing came in the boys Under-16 double scull, with Peterhouse and St Georges both qualifying for the 2 000m A final.
Julien Landrey and Dan Van Duren of Peterhouse went in with the fastest qualifying time and were the team to watch.
They led the race from the start and finished off with open water between them and the next crew of Stuart Duncan and Darragh Van Aswegan of St George’s College.
At U14 level, Daniel Leipe and Joshua Mukandi stunned many by snatching silver for St George’s College.
The girls were not to be outshone, with Chisipite’s Lorryn Bass picking up a silver medal in the U14 girls single scull, while Arundel’s Georgie Sampson finished a respectable 13th.
Bronze medals came in the U14 Girls’ double scull.
Online Reporter